Saturday, October 17, 2009

My Greatest Adventure: The Metal Men

One of the strangest super teams to come from DC's try-out book, made their first appearance in Showcase #37, back in March 1962. More than mere robot facsimiles of humans, The Metal Men, had the minds of several noted scientists and a few unlucky bystanders that got caught in a terrible experiment gone wrong, preformed by Dr. William Magnus. The good doctor's top secret project for the U.S. Army in robotics caused these heroes to fuse with his prototype "responseometers" that erased the memories and helped animate their powerful new automaton bodies. Based on the metals they came in contact with, Gold was their intelligent and analytical leader, the friendly giant, Iron, provided the muscle, proud and self centered was the robot Mercury, timid and shy was the loyal loving Tin, dynamic Lead was big-hearted but a little on the slow side, while the lovely Platinum rounded out the team, having a crush on their surprised "creator." This fantastic team, forged in the fiery foundries of science, often sold their lived dearly for humanity's sake against foes like the Missile Men or Chemo, only to be salvaged and rebuilt once again by their duty bound Dr. Magnus.